Researchers Find Some Populations More Sensitive to Fast Food Price Changes
University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health researchers
have apparently assessed the “subgroup-specific effects of fast food price
changes on fast food consumption and cardiometabolic outcomes,” reporting
greater sensitivity to fast food price changes among sociodemographic
groups with a disproportionate burden of chronic disease. Katie Meyer, et al.,
“Sociodemographic Differences in Fast Food Price Sensitivity,” JAMA Internal
Medicine, January 2014. Using data from 5,115 participants enrolled in the
Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, which included
food-frequency questionnaires as well as clinical measures such as body mass
index (BMI) and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance scores,
the study’s authors determined that, over 20 years of follow-up, “fast food
price was inversely associated with frequency of fast food consumption, with
greater price sensitivity among blacks, as compared with whites, and among
others with lower educational attainment.” In addition, the results suggested
that “fast food price was inversely associated with BMI in blacks and among
those with lower education attainment or at the middle income level but was
positively associated with BMI among whites and among participants with
higher educational attainment or at the highest income level.”
“These findings have implications for fiscal policy considerations, particularly
as they relate to sociodemographic disparities in fast food consumption and
subsequent health outcomes,” state the researchers. “Whereas many lowincome
and minority populations fight price increases because they note that
they unduly affect the poor, it is equally important for us to remember that
these reduced unhealthy behaviors can ameliorate health disparities and to
call out for strong support for the inclusion of subgroup-specific elasticity
estimates in model-based evaluations of policy approaches, as proposed by
others.”
Issue 510
